Scientists built a 'nightmare machine' just to scare you senseless

Some of the best minds in Australia and the U.S. have put their combined brain power to scientific (and evil) use. Researchers at CSIRO's Data61 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab have built what they called the Nightmare Machine, an artificial intelligence designed to transform beloved childhood characters into downright monsters. Not only can their AI now create its own images, but it's specifically trying to freak us out. According to the CSIRO, the "spooky formula" is generated by two deep learning algorithms: One that takes a visual style from one image and adds it to another, and one that can create faces. More than 200,000 images have been assessed for their fear factor, it said in a blog post, to help the AI learn what is truly frightening to mere mortals.